Return
by Memories Of The Bittersweet
Summary: The title has a double meaning, but basically, Ororo's past return and brings trouble. Suggested RoLo, Remy-Ororo friendship.
1. Mission

**Mission**

"We're coming in." Cyclops stated as he landed the Blackbird half a mile south of their destination, in a clearing in the woods. The X-Men had been sent on a mission to help a mutant, escape a mob of mutant haters, in Toulouse, France.

"In the caves, right Scooter?" Logan asked already at the ramp.

"Yes." Cyclops replied.

"Ah, France, da country of Gambit's ancestors." Remy flaunted his French vocabulary as the group walked out of the jet, making Ororo chuckle at some of his statements since she was almost fluent at the language.

"Ya know, sugah, ya still need to teach me some of that." Anna flirted in her Southern drawl. This did not go unnoticed by Remy, who replied ten-fold.

"Well of course, chere. When we get back, you and Remy will be spendin' a lot of time together, learnin' de ins and outs." Conversation was cut a few minutes later as the group came across the caves which held the frightened girl. They obviously couldn't all arrive at the entrance; it would scare her even more. So they designated Anna to make first contact; as it said on the roster.

"Hello?" Anna questioned stepping into the first cave. "Ah'm nut gunna, hurt ya, I just -" Suddenly Remy was behind her, wrapping him arms around her waist. "Gambit! What are you doin'?" Remy quickly spun Anna around and planting his luscious lips on that of his would-be lover.

At first she was stunning unable to move, then when she realised that she wasn't sucking the life force out of him she relaxed, putting her arms round his neck and deepening the kiss. They kissed for what felt like forever; suddenly he tried to back away, gagging. Anna felt Remy's life force being pulled into her and attempted to pull back as well: it wasn't working, they were shackled.

Anna finally pushed off of Remy, he plunged to the ground. The man's eyes were open; aghast, his face was pallid and contorted in pain. Blood slowly made a pool around his head, where it connected with the hard, rocky ground.

The woman, who had just slain her would-be mate, stood for a moment in complete shock, her face spectral-like. Her knees crunched as they hit the ground, she pushed her face into her hands and elicited a scream, full of agony and eternal shame.

Only a few metres away, stood the rest of the X-Men. They saw their teammate's speech being interrupted by an unseen event; she had stopped in her tracks. They didn't see the smile on her face that eventually turned into a grimace, nor her eyelids shooting open. What they did see however was her collapse to her knees and they definitely heard the scream that escaped her throat.

Remy was the first one up, sprinting towards the distraught woman, he was followed a nanosecond later by Logan. Remy skidded to a halt in front of Anna and wrapped his arms around her tightly, quelling her fear. She almost immediately stopped her shrieking, removing her hands from her face and opening her swollen eyelids to look at the man she just murdered.

"Remy?" she croaked.

"Oui, chere," he chucked mirthlessly. "What all dat yelling about? You scared us."

Anna almost laughed as her returned Remy's bear-hug, hiccupping into his shoulder and pulling back tears.

While Remy raced it to Anna, Logan chased the girl running out of the seeming empty cave. Scott called for him to stop, but he continued to run after the girl who had hurt his friend and colleague, weapons drawn. Ororo immediately followed, not thinking of her own safety or revenge for her girl friend, only the safety of the two people she was chasing.

Logan eventually caught up with her in a field, his hand raised as a first step in a deadly strike. Just then he felt a bitter wind knock him off balance, he fell to the grass. He was recovering when he suddenly returned to his past. Stuck in a tube, wires attached to significant places in and on his body. Logan saw, scientists and military officers outside the glass, discussing his progress. His fury erupted, a metallic taste rose like bile in the back of his throat, suddenly he was unstoppable.

His unbreakable claws broke his muscle emerging from in-between his knuckles, he tried to howl in pain, but all he succeeded in doing was almost drowning as the mask slipped. The men outside panicked as their experiment escaped from his prison, slashing through the glass wall. Then the massacre started.

Logan opened his eyes from the nightmare, but it wasn't Logan, it was Wolverine, the metallic taste still evident in the back of his throat. Logan was now in his Red stage and the mob from earlier were rising from the east side of the field, they were opposite. Ororo would have to subdue him quickly.

Logan sprinted to the crowd, but again the wind pushed him back until he was a metre behind his former stationary position. He howled in anger and turn on the woman who had done him such an injustice. Again the reaction to an attack was immediate, but this time it came from a new source. A red beam broke Logan's assault.

_Storm, you have to shock him._

Ororo knew that no other amount of force, save ones that drew blood, would knock the feral out. There was no point in arguing, so she let a low voltage lightning blast escape from her palm as Logan stood from Scott's defence. The feral dropped, skin pink.

"Honey, you need to come with us." Jean said carefully, walking in front of Ororo to get to the girl. The frightened child began to jog over to Jean when she saw the mob running to towards them; they were only a few seconds from reaching their targets.

None of the X-Men thought that Logan could recover from the electric shock so rapidly, so they were all surprised when he rose from the ground pointing his self-contained blades at the girl running towards them.

Ororo only had a split second to realise that Jean wouldn't react quick enough and throw Logan to the side, that her best friend was in her way so she couldn't throw another small voltage bolt at Logan, that the man would kill this innocent yet destructive child, and finally that the only way to subdue him would be to crash lightning from the sky into him. The firmament immediately split and its mistress' call was answered.

The consequences of Ororo's actions were not as dire as she expected, but it still hit her like a tonne of bricks. Logan skin was inflamed and had turned scarlet and the place were the lightning had struck him was black. Before she could fully revel in her grief over the situation, a Molotov cocktail landed half a foot away from her, she had to dance out of the explosion that followed.

The massive crowd was on them. Remy threw low charged cards at the back of the group, incapacitating several of them and gracing them with eventually scarring wounds, but his attack only made the smallest of dents in crowd of mutant haters. Anna worked with Remy, striking the men and the couple of women who tried to assault her or any of her team.

Scott fired several blasts from his visor, into the ground before the approaching people; soon there was a lengthy crater between them. If a person did get pass the crater, they would be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Jean was taking a defensive position, putting up a fiery psi-shield around herself, Logan and the girl. The people from the mob bounced off the shield with double the speed they had ran at it with. While everyone was somehow stopping their attackers, Ororo couldn't bring herself to hurt another living thing.

The first thing she felt was the thrush in her gut, she doubled over gripping the damaged area. A second man, who she didn't see as her head was dipped, came up behind her pulling her to her feet by her hair and throwing her back, making her roll a few times before stopping. She was pulled out of her daze as she saw ten men pegging it to her, jeering. Ororo immediately jumped to her feet, now was not the time to be distressed over what she had done, she could die, so she took up a Judo stance and defended her position causing as little pain to her opponent as possible.

After less than ten minutes of the fight the entire mob was either unconscious or stumbling back the way they came, some carrying friends. The X-Men ran over to the people who were not long covered by a psi-shield. Jean was on her knees beside Logan's head, checking his vitals.

"How is he?" asked Scott.

"Alive, but pulse is weak." replied the resident doctor. "We're going to have to get him to the mansion or at least the Blackbird quick, we could lose him."

"None of us-" Whatever Anna was going to say was cut off by a loud telepathic warning from Jean. The X-Men, and the stunned girl, were immediately flung into the air.

Hardly any time had passed when they finally arrived at the Blackbird, but the flight had felt like an eternity, the longer they flew the less time Logan had, it didn't look like he was regenerating. No-one spoke throughout the journey and when they were on the ground they instantly went into soldier mode, knowing what to do without being told.

The stoic Scott and Ororo got into the pilot and co-pilot seat, Remy strapped the girl in and started speaking to her in French, but stopped when she looked as if she didn't understand so he continued in English. Jean laid Logan on the medical cot with her telekinesis while Anna gathered the supplies Jean would need to keep Logan alive until they reached Hank in the med-lab back at the mansion.

As soon as Remy had his seatbelt on the jet roared into life, sending every animal, for half a mile around, running. The jet set off towards New York and just as it was on the ride to the Blackbird, nobody spoke.

Everyone was thinking about what made Logan attack, obviously it was the girl, but how had she broken him in just a few seconds. Almost everyone was thinking about it, the girl was wondering who these people were and where she was going, and Ororo, she terrorised herself over what she had done.

_I could have pushed him aside with a wind or, _she thought to herself, _no he would just get back up, killing many. But- I could have slowed him down with frost until we were able to subdue him with too much harm. But what if we were not able! _Through her inner dialogue, the clouds compressed then smashed together. They twisted from the snowy white into one massive, angry storm cloud. The winds outside the jet had picked up and were throwing themselves into the side of the Blackbird.

Ororo was struck out of her stupor by a violent gush of wind that would have flipped the plane over if Scott hadn't righted it. From the looks on the team's faces they were worried as much for their wind rider as they were Wolverine. She dissipated the clouds and winds quickly, thinking, _What are you doing, you could have killed them, like you could have Logan, like you di-. No, no. Calm Ororo._ In the back of her head an ominous voice whispered, but it was so low it was just a rumble.

When they finally arrived, Jean and Remy put Logan on a gurney and rolled him to the med-lab. Anna, even though she was reluctant, took the girl to one of the visitors' room. She didn't want to be with a girl that could cause so much suffering, but she knew it was her duty. She wanted to be with Ororo, get her threw whatever hurting Logan had done.

Scott and Ororo were left in the Blackbird when Anna and the girl, who had been identified as Danielle Moonstar, stepped off the ramp. Scott was up, packing away the unused equipment or throwing useless and dirty ones in the bin. Ororo, though unbuckled, was still sitting in the co-pilot seat, checking gauges she had checked two or three times already.

Scoot stopped and turned to his 2IC as he put the last of the rubbish in the bin liner. He couldn't image what it was like almost killing a friend, especially if he was someone like Ororo. Someone who valued all life even those who hated her for being her.

None of them knew too much about her life before joining the X-Men. She had never let the professor enter her mind, she was always adamant about that. They just had to trust her, they always did and she always came through. She was close to everyone, ever the mother figure, but her best friends were definitely Jean and Remy, her sister and brother. But she kept things even from those two. Ororo had spoken of her time before Kenya only twice (that he knew of), once too the professor and the other time when they were on the Blackbird, coming back from her first violent mission.

They had been talking about if they had ever killed anyone and how they had dealt with the guilt. They had all given reasonable explanations of how they could live with it, the underlying reason being self defence. Hank had asked Ororo if anyone had died by her hands, she said she had and when he asked when and how she dealt with it, she just said, "It was before Kenya." Then turned away.

Right now Scott had no idea what to do, they were more colleagues than friends and she had a lot of pride. Not enough to refuse help, but she would work out her inner demons herself, thoroughly, before bringing herself to talking to anyone about it. Maybe he should try to make her talk about it, let it all out.

"Ororo do y-" he started.

"I will do the remainder of the safety checks Scott, get some rest." She said in her maternal voice, not even a hint of the turmoil she was going through. Scott was going to protest when he saw her shoulders fall slightly. He knew then that all she needed was time, and that's what he would give her. He spun on his heels and walked out of the jet.

Long after Scott had left, Ororo still sat in her chair fiddling with gauges. The rumble in her head had increased in volume until it became a throbbing pain. Doing hollow tasks was not going to help her or Logan or anyone, she might as well do her duties and rest, like everyone else from the mission. Ororo finished the safety checks close to midnight, locked up the Blackbird and lugged herself back to her attic bedroom.

When she opened the door and saw the inviting queen bed, she thought she couldn't walk the last few feet to it let alone remove her suit, but somehow she did it, digging into her reserve of energy. Ororo dropped onto the bed, not bothering to cover herself with the quilt; she was asleep within two minutes.


	2. Bereft

**Bereft **

_She is stuck, trapped. Not in a box or by chains. Frozen. Her legs straight and stiff, back the same, arms hanging limply at her sides. Her eyes are the only part of her outer body that moves. They glare around franticly for an escape. The throbbing that had punctured her head for almost two hours is now all around her in the darkness. She can feel the intensity but not see it._

_She can feel a presence enter what ever void she is in. It is behind her, coming closer. The next thing she knows the throbbing is gone, but it was replaced with something worst. What walks towards her is the source of her dull pain, but now it burning and mixing with feelings of immediate and unrelenting trepidation. Within seconds it is right behind her, no heat comes off the shape, as if is not even real. The form soon wraps its arms around her; both at the torso. Its head rests at her cheek, almost touching. She gags and gives all her strength into her extremities, but nothing works. She is stuck, trapped._

_The portentous figure dips its head to the crook in her neck, tightening its grip, and inhales deeply. A 'mmm' noise roars in it's chest and larynx. It lifts it's heavy head and put it's mouth to her ear, kissing it twice before whispering in a low, honeyed voice, "Killer."_

Ororo was broken out of her nightmare as she crashed onto the floor, gasping for air. She was drenched with sweat, her eyes were pricked with tears and she felt as if she stifled a scream. Outside the winds were howling with the attachment to its mistress. _What…what was…that? _Were the only words she could formulate in her mind. Ororo looked at the crescent moon, she assumed it was around three thirty.

There was no way she could go back to sleep after that and she was too tired to do work, so there was only one logical option: ride. The wind rider rode the winds for what felt like an eternity. The joy and freedom she felt at not having to worry about anything was exhilarating and calming, simultaneously. As the sun broke the horizon, Ororo felt as if it was time to return but as she neared her open balcony doors she couldn't bring herself to enter, as if the memory of the dream was physically stopping her. She flew down to the front door, entered her code and walked to the kitchen. As she retrieved the Phish Food from the freezer, she knew she would have to resolve the issue of Logan, and the best way to do that was to see him.

Before Ororo pulled off the lid she decided to go down to the med-lab. So she put the ice cream back and strolled down the stairs, taking her time, trying to think what to do. But she reached her destination sooner than expected and before her, under a soft white quilt was Logan.

Taken by instinct, Ororo walked slowly over to her fallen comrade. She didn't register that they were alone in the room; her eyes transfixed on Logan. His skin was almost perfectly healed. The majority of it was back to its normal colour, but she knew there would be a foreboding wound hidden beneath a layer of bandages.

Ororo was beside Logan now, she reached out her hand to his arm, flinching away ever so slightly, but continued until she gripped his forearm.

"Logan." She whispered, her hand travelling down to his. "Logan, I am sorry, so sorry." She started carefully, raising her voice just above a whisper. Ororo slid down into a chair by his bed and pulled it closer. She caressed the back of his hand with her thumb and spoke again. "I thought you w-. There is no excuse for what I did, how can there be. You needed help, someone to get you out of Red. But I did not do that, I used force and I almost got you killed. You…" she choked, again tears stung her swirling blue eyes. "You almost died and it was my fault. My fault. It always seems to be. I will not ask for your forgiveness, I do not deserve it." The tears cascaded down her face, river upon river falling onto Logan arm. She had enough restraint to keep the heavens form opening and pouring her pain onto the entirety of New York. "I only came to say I am sorry Logan." As if that sentence took the last of her energy, Ororo leaned forward and fell asleep, her head rested on Logan's arm. In her sleep she tightened her grip of his hand and murmured, "I'm so sorry, Logan."

When he heard the deep slow breathes of the woman by his side, his eyes surged open and looked at her. He pushed back her hair with his free hand and stroked her cheek. He heard every word.

"…dy, I'm fine." Growled a voice.

"If that were true your wound would be entirely heal and as I'm sure you can see it's not." Said a voice higher in pitch.

"You know what, I don't care, I'm getting' outta this place." There was a shuffling noise as the growling man removed something.

"Logan if I have…" Ororo blinked her eyes open and stared at the scene in front of her. Logan was getting out the bed; a pair of boxers was his only coverings and Jean was trying her hardest to keep him in. She shuffled in her upright position making the two people turn to face her.

"Morning, Ororo." Jean greeted as she dropped her hands by her sides.

"Good morning, Jean. Good morning, Logan, I hope your health returns to you." And with that she glided out, pushing up her calm façade.

"Sorry Logan." The redhead pushed out solemnly.

"Hnh?" he looked at her confused.

"Ororo." She said, not meeting his gaze.

"What about her?" he asked gruffly.

"I didn't think you'd want her in here." It was hard for her to admit, but she was angry at Ororo. Not enraged to a dangerous point, more like annoyed that she couldn't have done something else to restrain Wolverine.

"What?" he was still confused.

"After what happened yesterday, I thought you'd be angry at her." She explained.

"Leave it out, Red. 'Ro did what she had to do, if she hadn't, I probably woulda killed ya all. You guys should be thankin' her, not shunnin' her if that's what you're thinking of doin'."

Jean was stunned that Logan was defending Ororo, the feral man was actual showing another emotion besides anger. He had come to them almost five years ago and in that time, though he had a few more emotions that just anger, it was usually to a diminutive degree, but just now he was eliciting deep concern.

"OK, Logan." After a moment she said, "But you've still on bed rest, in here, until I deem otherwise. Understood?"

"Yeah whatever, Red." He grumbled as he lay back down on the bed, but did not cover himself again. Jean sighed to herself and walk out of the med-lab towards the elevator. She stood in front of it, pressed the button once, than twice for good measure and looked down at her notes of Logan's chart; he would be out by midday tomorrow if not sooner. Jean was tired, but when the lift didn't arrive she frustratingly decided to take the stairs.

Travelling up Jean saw the figure of Ororo curled up in a ball, leaning against the wall, she immediately ran to her friend to ask her friend what was wrong, but Ororo answered the unasked question first.

"I am alright Jean, I just do not think the students would appreciate me walked up to my room in just a nightdress. I am going to wait until lessons start again." Ororo had lifted her head and was smiling at her best friend as she spoke, but if the smile had been fake, she couldn't tell.

"Oh honey, I can go up to your room and get some of your clothes for you if you like." Jean said in a kind voice, kneeling next to the sitting form.

"Do not worry yourself on my account Jean, go and do want you need to." She replied.

"Only if your sure 'Ro, it would only take a minute."

"No, go. I will be fine." She replied clutching the younger woman's shoulder.

"Alright." Jean returned the smile and kissed her sister's cheek. Standing up Jean moved onto the ground floor, looking back once. She sighed as she passed through the door, Ororo needed to talk about what happened, but she would choose who she confide in as well as the place and time. And if this wasn't it, it wasn't it.

_Liar, _Ororo chided herself as Jean left. She hadn't been lying, parse, more like not telling the whole truth. She hadn't wanted the children to see her in her nightdress, but she also needed some time alone, think everything through. What was that dream about and why had it had such an affect on her? How would she get through this? These questions and more posed in her mind.

_You'll get though it how you always do, Ororo. _She stood up and straightened herself, sensing that lunch was nearly over and the students would be returning to their classrooms. She waited until she was sure that none of them would be in the halls then crept out onto the ground floor, then floated up to her room, not seeing a soul.

Ororo stayed in her room the rest of the day, first laying down and reading a book cover to cover, she had read it before so it only took a few hours. Then she rushed down to the kitchen and picked up a salad and orange juice before the students arrived there. The next thing she decided to do was take a nice long bath. She had put up some dark linen at her windows to create a night time effect, even though it was practically dusk, and lay a dozen lit candle around the bathroom and closed the door.

_I hope no one will interrupt me. _She thought as she climbed into her vanilla scented bubble bath. Normally she didn't use the bath, preferring either to have a shower or bathe in the river, but today she felt as if the bath was comforting. Ororo thought of all the fond memories she had with the grumbling feral know as Logan, smiling to herself as she breathed in the heavenly scents. Gradually Ororo drifted off into a dreamless sleep, but that was to change, rather abruptly.

_This dream is almost exactly like the one before; she is bound in a void, bound by spectral adhesives. And again, a strong foreboding presence comes up behind her, but this time it is more intense. The pain and burly emotions that lance through her is almost enough to make her move. Almost. But the gangly arms again encase her. The heavy head again sits next to her cheek, almost touching. But it is not the end like it had the night before._

_The hands caress her stomach as a lover would, but all she wants to do was recoil away from the contact. The hands move around more and more until they start travelling up her body. She gags and thinks she might vomit, but something stops her. The left hand goes back down to encompass her stomach again while the right hand continues to ascend. It stops in the middle of her chest, but for unknown reasons, it continues to rise, she is exultant now but it will not last._

_It opens its sordid orifice and grips her lobe in it's fangs. The sickening tongue lashes at her earlobe, sending more sizzling pain running through her. The tongue then somehow wraps around the part of her body it was just licking and starts to suck the life out of it, lathering it in slimy saliva. She feels herself scream, but there is no sound, only the feeling that she cannot breath and is about to die. An oily digit falls under her jaw, the fangs hold her lobe but the tongue stills._

"_Mine." It says before the finger pushes up until a click resounds in the void and a searing agony erupts throughout her body._

Ororo woke in torture, something was being stuffed into her mouth, she couldn't breathe. Only moments before unconsciousness and certain death took her, she realized she was still in the bath so she pushed herself out and onto the stone floor with all her strength. She gasped for breath and chocked up a hefty amount of water. Cough after cough came her way and though she tried to fight it, the realm of unconsciousness took her. But not again to see the figure in her recent nightmares.


	3. Closer And No Closer

**Closer And No Closer**

Ororo woke up hours later, she was no long wet, but was shivering from the cold. _I do not feel cold, so then why do I shiver? _She asked herself._ What is happening to me?_ Ororo ascended on unstable feet from her position on the floor and stumbled to her bedroom. She wrapped herself in a towel then in a fluffy dressing gown before cautiously heading to the kitchen, what was there would make everything better.

She walked in to the kitchen with laboured breath that stopped entirely when she saw the figure parked one of the seats.

"Couldn't sleep darlin'?" Logan asked putting down his bottle and lifting his steely eyes to meet her crimson sapphires.

"Erm, yes." She croaked. Disconcerted by how raspy her voice sounded she tried to cough the sound out, but only served to start a coughing fit.

"You alright 'Ro?" he asked, getting off his seat and trotting to her, he put out his hand to hold her shoulders, but she back away. She didn't even look up, but she sensed it. After a few seconds she stopped and looked up at his confused and angered face.

"Sorry." She whispered and turned to practically run out.

"Wait." She stopped and turned back. "What's wrong 'Ro?"

There was no point in hiding what was happening to her and the faster she got it out the sooner she could be helped. "I do not know. I have had- I am just cold." She shivered and tightened her arms around her body.

It took a minute for Logan to realize what she had said and when he did he started, "But you can't get cold."

"I know and I have been having these nightmares', it only been two days but…"

"But?" he asked when she didn't finish.

"Do not worry." She moved to the fridge to get a glass of water when a hand shot out, a millimetre from her arm. She gasped and became a statue.

"Please…don't…" she choked out. He withdrew his hand and stared at the wind rider, dumbfounded.

"I won't, sorry. Just tell what's wrong, what happen? Have I done something?"

"No, no. It is not you, it is me." She replied quickly and leaned against the fridge. "It is what I did to you…and these nightmares."

"Come on, we can sit in the rec. room."

She nodded and walked to the chairs in the next room, followed a few seconds later by Logan carrying his beer and a glass of water. Ororo sat on the couch with her legs tucked under her while Logan sat on another couch, adjacent.

"Believe me when I say I know what you're going through about what happened two days ago, but I don't blame ya and whatever happens you should never be sorry for it." He sounded so sincere and knowing, Ororo felt comforted and safe. "So you wanna tell me what this is all about, darlin'?"

"The nightmares." She whispered.

"Yeah." He answered even though it was a statement not a question. She recounted everything that happened in the first nightmare. Then turned to him and said, "It felt so real."

Logan listened while Ororo stated what happened in her nightmare two nights before. Why had he asked her to do this? How could he help her?

"'Ro…I…" he stuttered.

"You don't know what to say." She had put on her maternal voice again, and said it with such a knowing smile.

"Yeah." He answered honestly.

"As I told you before, there is no need to worry for me." Her legs flew to the ground and she was walking away before he had time to react from her words. Not even thinking about what he was doing next, he practically shouted at her, "Labs...water," the next words were said quietly and as though he was reliving his own bad dreams, "and pain." So they had got the ball rolling, but would it dissipate into the snow or produce an avalanche.

Ororo returned to her place on the couch and waited until her was ready to continue.

"That's what most of 'em are about, and the worst thing is that I know they're memories and not some sick lies my mind's worked up." He took a deep breath and exhaled steadily. "Had 'em as long as I can 'member. I'm in labs, hardly awake and I hear 'em talking 'bout me but I can hear properly, their voices all distorted. Then I'm under water and I'm fighting to get out, and the pain, just…I don't now how to explain in words, it's just too much. They usually shift between those two, but sometimes I'm runnin' for my life, blood and pain and fear, they are only things I know, then there's a flash o' light and I'm awake, soaked."

He had never been that deep with anyone, he didn't even scold himself for appearing so weak; it felt good to open up, not that he'd ever admit it.

"So is that why you acted that way in the med-lab yesterday morning?" she inquired, knowing the answer.

"Yeah." He replied. He hadn't removed his hands from the bottle, though it was on the table. But now he lifted it, leaning forward, it had just touched his lips when a warm hand delicately sat on his. He stopped and looked up from his beer, cerulean orbs looked at him, not with pity, but with understanding. The hand took the bottle from his and rested on the table.

Ororo was kneeling in front of him when she took the bottle. She slipped onto the couch, next to him and put his arms around him. He immediately leaned in, putting right arm around her torso. They sat like that for ages, just accepting each others presence, it was comforting knowing that some else understood, even if it was on different levels.

They broke apart and sat slightly awkwardly for a time, but that eventually faded into conversation and before they new it they were laughing and joking, the previous seriousness gone. The sun was coming up when the finally walked back to their rooms.

The next day was just as most school days are, monotonous. The teachers taught the same lessons they had been teaching for years, with obvious changes according to the class. And students; tired, bored and chatty as ever, learnt and complained.

Dinner was as it always was, talking to friends and recent events and catching up on the newest gossip. But that day the professor announced that he was leaving for Washington that night and was not due back for almost a week. When Scott asked him why he was leaving he said that he was going to clarify some points with Senator Kelly. Everybody waved him off an hour after dinner and went to their rooms.

Ororo strolled up to her attic room after she checked that all the students were safe tucked up in their beds. Charles had trusted her to be the principal while he was away and she had taken the job with no argument despite the fact that she could hardly take care of herself.

She did her usual night ritual and climbed into bed, both her nightmare had either been in he bed or bathroom, so she felt a little wary sleeping in there, but it was soon replaced by exhaustion. Just like the two nights before she slipped into her dreamless sleep phase, but the nightmare came faster than the other night. Ororo had only been asleep for a couple of minutes before the torment started again.

_Oily fingers roam her body as the leathery tongue deposited it's saliva onto the nape of her neck. The disgusting digits travel to her hip and the pelvis of the figure behind slid right to left and back again. They gyrated together more vigorously as the time passes ever so slowly._

_Hot, putrid breath escapes from it's maw as it's breathing gets heavier and heavier. She tries to claw at it or scream, do anything to escape, anything, but her body was useless. She just has to remain a puppet to the figure as it abuses her body. _

_Suddenly, after an eternity, the form stops it's assault and she feels it smile. A lump gathers in her throat. It never removes it's hands as it spins her, again, agonisingly slowly. It speaks as she turns, "Ah, my…"_

Ororo flew off the bed, hand covering her mouth. She barely had time to lift the lid before the vomit erupted. She knelt in front of the toilet as her recently eaten food soared into it, then sticky, thick water and finally dry heaving. Her throat and stomach burnt as though set on fire, she curled into a ball and gripped she stomach, shivering with spikes of hot and cold, and sweating as if in a volcano.

_I must…speak…to Charles of…this when he c-comes back. _She struggled to even say in her mind, as wave upon wave of nausea broke through her thought. She lay before the toilet for a while, gathering herself to together, after, she had a shower and jogged around the grounds for over an hour. Ororo returned, albeit reluctantly, to her room and changed her clothes, from there she went to her classroom, doing work she had collected from Charles the day before.

It was almost three hours before she heard the first signs of life from the children. Logan had come down earlier, but he went straight down to the danger room. She taught all the lessons she normally taught, at break she had to stay in the classroom and do work, but lunch was free time, though she did have work to attend to, she needed rest.


	4. Hurt

**Hurt**

Ororo sauntered into the crazed rec. room looking for Jean and when she couldn't find her, she travelled into the kitchen and found the person she was looking for walking out of the room.

"Jean." She called in her usual demeanour and even above the noise her best friend heard her. She turned and smiled, it almost faulted when she felt the waves of fatigue being emitted from Ororo. The woman in question portrayed none of what she felt inside, physically.

"Hello Ororo." Jean said merrily, as she strolled towards her best friend. "What can I help you with?" she questioned.

"Well," she started, sitting at the one of the chair. "I have had this nightmare, an-" Before she could finish, Bobby and Rhane crashed into the kitchen. Rhane raced in first, laughter burning her face red and making her hold her sides. Bobby's tumbled in a moment later with his shirt torn at the collar and his face a rival for Wolverine's. He threw up his hands to supposedly hurl frost in her direction, but before he could Jean's voice rang out in sharp reprimand, "Rhane! Robert! What do you think you're doing?"

They stopped. The latter looked as if he was on the verge of a meltdown and the former chuckled in between biting her lip. Jean carried on in a lighter but still rightful tone, "Now wait for me out there, I'll deal with two in a few minutes." They followed her instruction and moved into the passage they had recently emerged from.

"Sorry," Jean smiled then took on a more serious face and sat next to Ororo when she said, "tell me about this nightmare." Ororo was about to recant the event when a smashing-crash and loud banging sound, coupled with a few gasped escaped from the passageway. Both women sighed and motioned towards the sound.

They found a small but gathering crowd around a shattered vase and a slightly rolling podium, the rolling was the only sound heard. Ororo didn't have time to take charge as Jean stalked over to the couple who had caused the damage and almost blow their heads off. Ororo concentrated on dispersing the gathering student, then picking up the pieces of clay that were scattered on the floor.

After a long chastise, Jean sent both pupils up to their respective rooms until lesson commenced, then helped Ororo harvest the rest of the pieces. When both teachers were nearly finished, Scott walked into the passage and there was an immediate change in the doctor. Her angered face melted into one brimming with mirth, she spoke light and flittered when her husband spoke to her. Ororo knew it would be useless to talk to her friend when she was in this state, so she said her goodbyes to them and walk back to the kitchen.

The rest of the day pass excruciatingly slow, and although the weather goddess had tonnes of work and all of it was arduous and exhausting, she was grateful for it. Ororo knew she would get another lurid dream, and obviously wasn't looking forward to it, so whatever time was spent away from REM sleep would be happy time.

She went back to her classroom, not wanting to go to the prison of her dreams in the place it was most likely to happen. She got out the test papers on geography she was obliged to mark, started at the top she almost laughed at how much had change in her life. She had been at the institute for so many years and she had thought about it whenever she had enough time to herself to reflect on the past, which was hardly ever. So knowing that again this was not the time, she got down to the marking.

After the sky had darkened into navy blue with flits of grey and the moon shone as bright as the sun, Ororo finally finished her grading. She sat back in her chair and yawned, she was so tired and it would be easy to go to sleep just for a little. _Maybe the dream won't come tonight_, a voice in her head claimed.

No. She was determined to stay awake. Ororo walked to Charles' office, which was situated in the second, right door in the entrance hall. She entered and smiled; Charles, her mentor, her friend. Letting the warmth of the knowledge that he would return soon wash over, Ororo when to his desk and picked up the receiver of the phone on his desk. She almost abhorrent at her use of technology, but that was a silly pet peeve she was trying to overcome.

Ororo dialled the number of the room he was staying at in the hotel in Washington. It rang and rang for almost a minute and she was about to put down the phone when she heard it click, but it was not the soothing voice of Professor Charles Xavier she heard but rather the uncoordinated voice of the answering machine woman. Ororo slowly put down the reciever, then picked it up and redialled. The same thing happened, it was obvious the Charles was not there but she would try again and if he didn't answer she would leave a message.

What happened twice before turned into thrice. When the long beep marking the time to record sounded, Ororo said, "Hello Charles, sorry if I am disturbing you, but I really would like to speak to you about something. I do not know if you would think it of great importance, but- thank you, I shall hopefully speak to you later, old friend. Goodnight." With that she returned the receiver to its resting place. She sighed; frustrated that she could not get hold of him. She nearly sank to the floor in exhaustion, instead she rubbed her temples and rambled to the kitchen.

Ororo hated coffee more than her use of technology, but she had to stay awake, at least until she was able to talk to Charles. She went back to her classroom after filling the largest cup in the manor with steaming, fresh, black coffee. A sigh escaped her as she sat in the chair that would become her home for the next how many hours. Immediately she heard that gruff yet honeyed voice she had come enjoyed these past few days more than the other months and years before.

"Coffee, Ro?" the man who possessed that captivating voice stepped into the doorway.

"Tired." She replied, giving him a weak smile.

"Ya hate coffee more then ya hate phones. I heard ya talkin' earlier. What going on with ya, Ro?"

Ororo eyes turning into a steely blue when he said his second sentence. Had he heard the message she left for Charles?

As if reading her mind her said, "I didn't hear what ya said, it was all muffled." Her eye softened at his confession, but only slightly. Looking down at her coffee, she asked more curtly than she intended to, "What do you want Logan?"

"I just wanna ta know what the matter with ya is." He said stepping further into her room, he had an edge to his voice this time, but his eyes and words portrayed his concern.

"Nothing is the matter with me, Logan. I am staying awake because I have a lot of work to do. I wonder how he does it?" she mused her ending.

His voice hardened again, "Ya tired as hell Ro. I mean look at ya and what was with waking up so damn early since what happened in France?" Had he forgotten about their conversation already?

Ororo was obviously astonished by what he had said, so she said in a clipped tone, "Thank you for your concern Logan, I would like to finish my work, alone."

"Damn it 'Ro I'm tryin' ta help ya." He said it in a louder voice, but was not shouting.

"And I appreci-."

"Whatever Storm, if you're not gunna accept ya got a problem then I can't be bother ta point it out ta ya. When the shit hits the fan I guess you'll face it, alone." And with that he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Ororo stared mystified and hurt. Had Logan just said that? Her nose and eyes itched as they turned red, tears ready to fall. _Alone, _a deep voice echoed in her head. At first it died as all echoes do, but then it got louder and louder until Ororo covered her ear to try, uselessly, to bloke it out. The loud 'ne' pulled her until _she is back in hell._

_It all happens again. Every second of agony that had been a day in the previous nightmares is now an eternity. All three play again. It comes to the place where it ceased the night before. The dark figure never removes it's hands as it spins her again, agonisingly slowly. It speaks as she turns, "Ah, my beautiful Ororo." She sees his demonic face._

_Seventy suns suddenly break into the void, filling it with blazing light and intense heat._

_She burns._

_She scalds._

_She blisters. _

_She dies over and over again._

_Ororo screams._

Logan heard it rip through the manor just as he flopped into his bed, nothing on except his jeans and dog tags. His sensitive ears perked up and forced him to cover them until they adjusted, and they did, quickly. He jumped off his uncomfortable bed and pegged it down the stairs like a bat out of hell. The agonising scream was not hard to pinpoint and within seconds he was in front of Ororo's classroom door.

He raced over and grabbed the knob, immediately he shrieked back. A part of the skin on his hand had been ripped off in the ensuing jump. How had he not notice it before? The door to the classroom was frozen over, mist escaped from it covering the floor.

As his hand healed Jean and Scott ran down the stairs following the heart-wrenching call. Jean was in only a short nightdress, but she was puling on a silk dressing gown. Her husband ran a yard in front of her, dressed in pyjama bottoms and probably a top he just pulled on. Already, scared students were lining the stairway.

"Blast it!" The two words were shouted at Scott, he heard them but didn't realize who it was directed at.

_**BAMF**_

Logan ran to Scott and grabbed his shoulder with his healing hand. "I said blast it!" He shouted again.

"But I could-"

"Now Cyclops." Logan said his code name, he never did, this was serious. Logan was practically begging.

Scott eyes were open as he wiped of his red quartz glasses and instantaneously two thick beams of red shot the door in, the window behind it was pushed out by the same force. With his eyes closed Scott could not see that a wall of winter wind that came at the people in the passage. He did however feel an incorporeal force push him to the side.

At once he pushed back on his glasses, through his red tinted vision he saw Logan bound into the frozen room, Remy, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, ran in a moment after, his long coat bellowing in front of him.

The terrible scream grew louder and more frightening the closer both of them got to the white-hair woman on the floor. It was hard to see her through the ashen tornado that swirled around them and the frost bit at their skin, but they still saw her form writhing as if in some kind of torture.

Logan tried to push the desk that covered her form away, but he threw his hand at it with such force that the desk shattered. He stared at it for a moment, but his attention was soon drawn back to the woman on the floor. He knelt down beside her and saw that she was sweating profusely, she was at the heart of the ice storm. He shook her shoulders as he shouted her name; however it was spirited away in the howling wind. Remy was already knelling on the other side of his sister. He put his mouth to her ear and said in his ever smooth voice, "Ororo, ma soeur, sillage de ce cauchemar. Je suis ici, Logan est ici. Vous êtes sûr."

Her scream became a strangled cry that dwindled as the winds did. Everything was eerily silent, for a few seconds. Both men looked for any sign of movement, they saw none until her eyes fluttered, but never opened. She mouthed something, trying to speak, but her destroyed larynx would not allow it. Just an instant later she was unconscious, again placed in her tormentors hands.

Remy laid his freezing duster over his again squirming sister, though is was a tenth as energetic as it had been just moments earlier, in an attempt to cool her, he had also seen the sweat dripping from her. He gathered her up in his arms, but was unable to keep her head from lolling. Though it hurt him to even move, Ororo was more important. Remy went stiffly out of the room; Logan was only a second in front of him. As Remy exited he heard the gasps of several student witnesses, their poignant yet outwardly stoic teacher lay limply in her brothers arms, apart from the odd grimace and slight movement of her head, she was deadly still.

"What the…Remy what happened?" Jean breathed.

"I don' know, chere, but Stormy needs to be in dat med-lab."

Ororo, ma soeur, sillage de ce cauchemar. Je suis ici, Logan est ici. Vous êtes sûr. - Ororo, my sister, wake from this nightmare. I am here, Logan is here. You are safe.


	5. Revelations

**Revelations **

They rushed Ororo to the med-lab, Remy carefully placed her on the bed then Jean and Hank strapped her to an EKG machine and put an IV tube in her arm. Jean told everyone to go back to their rooms, though none of them could sleep. Only Remy didn't do as he was told and the two doctors had to conduct their tests around him.

The next morning the entirety of the senior staff came down to the war room as they had all been summoned there. Hank said to them, solemnly, that he and Jean had no idea what was wrong with their temporary headmistress and that if she didn't improve by tomorrow morning then they would call the professor.

She didn't improve.

Jean took a deep breath and pushed down 5 on her mobile to activate her speed dial. The phone rang a couple of times then answered.

"Hi." Said a cheery child's voice.

Jean's faced scrunched up in wonderment then it relaxed and she smiled. "Sorry, wrong number."

"Erm…OK." He sounded confused, but ended it merrily and put down the phone. Jean laughed slightly and walked to the front door and opened it to see a black car coming up the driveway. He always new when something was wrong, she mused.

The joyous arrive of her mentor was nullified by the heavy, freezing rain. It was obvious that Ororo had subconsciously caused this since it was the height of summer. That thought brought her back from her merriment, her best friend was sick, maybe dying and was grinning like a toddler. She chided herself for acting so selfishly as tears formed in her eyes. Jean ran out to help get the luggage, the cascading salty droplets mingled with the rain until she could tell which was which.

Jean thanked the driver after she brought all of the professor things inside and he had carried the professor inside. Jean turned to Professor Xavier and he felt the waves of worry pour off her. He said smoothly, "Don't worry, child. We'll bring Ororo back." She smiled at him and after he was in his wheelchair again, they went to the med-lab. She was not surprised to find the first team of senior X-Men in the lab since it was a Saturday and the fact that the professor would have told them to meet him here.

"What do we know -" Before Charles' sentence an inexorable force swept though the grounds of the school, driving everyone to push their palms against their heads in agony. Some of the people were forced to their knees while others succumbed to unconsciousness. The only thing Charles knew at that point was that point was that this force was an extremely strong telepath, so reaching out with his mind he asked, _Who are you?_

_Hello Charles, _said an ominously baritone voice.

_Shadow King, _Charles whispered. Their mentor's reaction to the voice made everyone, even Logan imperceptibly, shiver.

_I'm glad to know my reputation precedes me._

_But you're…_

_Dead? No, that weakling of a girl could never kill one such as me._

_What do you want? _Jean asked, returning from her stupor.

_Oh, I forgot about you five._

_Hey, my wife asked you a question, _Scott spoke with more venom than most of the people in the room thought he could.

_Ororo. I thought that would be obvious._

_Why? _Charles spoke again.

_To see her dead. Or more accurately; see her suffer, then die._

_Why? _His anger shone thought like a torch in the deepest, darkest night.

_That girl, Ororo, destroyed my body with her sky flame until there weren't even ashes. She killed my chances of me every having children, a perfect heir. I would have controlled its body when the previous was too decrepit to be of use._

_You had enough children to do your dirty work, then you wanted more, with your blood? _Charles said infuriated, which only served to do the same to his opponent.

_The only thing you accomplished by making that snide comment was making me double her pain receptors. I'm sure everyone will thank you for that._

_I'm gunna gut ya, bub_

_So, you're going to kill a person who is on the astral plains are you Wolverine. That comment shows me how stupid you really are, I expected more, as her memories of you suggest. Oh yes, I almost forgot. She's screaming for you, Logan._

Logan growled his reply, unable to form words.

_Well, I guess that's all I have to say, have a nice day._ The Shadow King said merrily.

_No, Wai-_ she was interrupted by an image of a young girl, maybe six, with white hair, kneeling on a dirty floor. A girl was either side of her; they couldn't have been more than two years older. The girl struggled to escape their grip, tears were steaming down the face of both girls, but they held her in place.

Slowly a bright white-red object came into view. The object struck the young Ororo's bare shoulder cruelly fast and a jet of steam and violent writhing of the person it had struck were the visual productions of the contact. The only audible one was sudden and agonised scream of young Ororo. The people watching almost felt the pain she was going through as the scream pierced their hearts and made them want to heave whatever was in their stomachs.

After what seemed like an eternity, the branding tool was removed from its victim's skin and what was smooth mocha skin was now a black shadowed crown, harsh red formed around it and it swelled at an expediential rate. Ororo slumped forward and the girl let go of her when a man's voice shouted at them. The white haired girl fell onto the floor with a deafening thud, and lay shivering and sweat drenched, on the floor, fully conscious for she was sobbing hard. She didn't even try to move, it was too painful.

Abruptly, what seemed like a tonne of icy salt water was thrown on her, her back arched to the point of breaking. She hissed incomprehensible words and writhed around on the floor, only making her agony worse. Gradually the child slowed to a slight, rhythmic-less shiver and shallow breathing. Suddenly the memory turned into a black screen and the viewers were able to open their eyes, they found themselves kneeling on the cold floor, except Charles who pushed forward in his chair, their hands either clenched near their body or covering their face. They all tried frivolously to fight back burning tears, as the sick realisation came to them how many times a year that would happen once they discovered Ororo's minor healing ability.

_**BAMF**_

"Mein Gott, schwester, vhat happened." Enquired Kurt as he jogged to the person nearest to him, Anna, and knelt by her placing his hands softly on her shoulders.

"Kurt?" Anna croaked.

"Oh god." Said Scott from next to her, he gradually stood and as did Logan. Scott raced over to his wife and helped her stand. Logan did the same to an openly crying Remy.

When all were standing and Charles was sitting upright in his chair again, Kurt spoke, "Vhat happen? Everyone dropped, our heads felt like they were splitting, vhen I recovered I 'ported down here."

"Everyone?" the professor inquired.

"Ja."

"Are they OK?"

"Fine, it stopped a few seconds afterwards, sorry I couldn't get down here faster."

"Don't worry, there was nothing you could have done." Jean reassured. There were muffled 'bang's as Piotr raced towards the med-lab, Kitty and Jubilee close behind.

"Is everyone OK? What happened? My head wa-"

Charles raised his hand signalling silence then said to Kurt, "Please take the children upstairs."

_**BAMF**_

All the occupants of the room turned to Charles expectedly, all except Remy, who was sitting next to Ororo, his head on her stomach, he was looking at her with swollen eyes and murmuring in French.

"Please tell me that was some work of fiction on this Shadow King guy's part, professor?"

"I wish I could Scott, but I believe it was one of Ororo memories seen though his eyes, from her time with the Shadow King."

"She never told any of us, right? But then again it not exactly something you share over a beer." Anna added. "Did you know Remy?"

Remy shook his head, unable to speak, except to his sister in his native language.

There was a moment of silence, not awkward, just reflective. When the moment passed, Scott asked quietly, "What do we do now, professor?"

"Now we find a way to kill the Shadow King." He said matter-of-factly. He rolled out of the door and towards the lift leaving a very stunned audience behind.


	6. End

**End**

The med-lab remained full of people for the next few hours, but one by one most of the X-Men returned to their rooms. Jean and Remy were the only ones to stay. There needed to be a doctor in the room in case anything happened while the others were asleep, jean was the logical choice since Hank had been there since Ororo had been brought in. Remy didn't need to state his reason; everyone knew how the two felt about each other. He would not leave the Med-lab until his sister did.

The two of them were with Ororo the whole of that night and the next, but the third day saw Jean replaced by Hank. Remy was the only one to stay as a constant vigil, however, he did not resent the others, truly he understood. He had done the same of a few occasion, when he was not close to the person, but that wasn't how the others felt. It was just that with two and sometimes three teachers down they needed to pick up the slack.

So he was still there a week after the incident, but nothing had changed. Remy knew all of the manor's mutants; seniors, juniors and teachers alike, were trying to find a way to get their friend out of the coma that she had been forced into, but it was to no avail.

Not wanting to build up hope and have it dashed, Charles told no one about the idea, it was still in its blueprint stage and it could risk the lives of everybody in the manor.

Eleven days had passed and things were returning, relatively, to normal. Though a melancholy still hung in the air, the young children had dampened it with their innocence and mirth. It spread slowly, for people felt guilty if they enjoyed themselves, but it eventually reached almost everyone. The manor had a strange mix of elation and despair, it didn't make sense in theory but worked it practice.

It was late in the surprisingly cloudless morning of the twelfth day and lesson four had started a few minutes ago. Jean finally settled her English class and began the lesson.

"Now, Iago in Othello's Ancient, can anyone her tell me what th-" the rest of her sentence was cut off by a sudden pain in her chest. She stumbled back into her desk with the intensity of it, clutching at her chest desperately, air had suddenly become a meagre commodity. Several of the students were on their feet, rushing her and asking questions she could not hear. Her mind was focused, absolutely, on what had caused such a pain in her heart.

She had felt something close to this a sundry of times in her life, the first time when her telepathic abilities manifested, she was just a child. After that it had been an almost regular feeling, until she met Professor Xavier. The other times it had felt like a burn in her chest, the sensation painful but bearable. But this hurt felt as if it would kill her. This time it was a white hot poker driving through her chest, ripping through bones and muscle like a hot knife in butter. The heat consumed anything in it's path and stole her breath.

Presently, returning from her tormenting torpor, she could hear her students' frantic calls. She was back an instant later telling them to stay where there were as she rushed out of the door.

Sprinting clown the corridors, the name of her best friend, sister, swirled singularly in her mind. Without warning questions sprang from there hiding places, constricting her muscles with fear. Was she already late? Had it been quick and unpredictable? If not, was it painful? Why hadn't the professor contacted her? Had something happened to him?

Jean leapt out of the lift, again running full pelt for the med-lab. The sight that greeted her was not a tenth as hysterical as se thought it would be, but it still stopped her in her tracks as she took in the shocking situation.

The defibrillator was resting on a cart, charging as large blue-furred hands held the paddles. The concerned eyes of Hank were staring into dull blue ones, the lifelessness in them sending shivers down Jean's spine as she shot forward meaning to take the bag out of a young man's worried hands. Remy was pumping air into Ororo's lungs irregularly, but Hank was preoccupied dealing with her flow of blood to worry about the flow of air.

Dr. grey not-to-gently pulled Remy away from Ororo and continued his working a more calming fashion. Hank pushed the paddles onto the wind riders bare skin when the defibrillator hummed, signifying that it was fully charged. Shouting for them to clear he pressed the buttons that should have brought her back, but it didn't even educe the automatic response.

Jean continued to pump the bag as Hank realized that the current would never affect a person who channelled thousands of volts of electricity on an almost daily basis. Throwing the paddles to the side, he started chest compressions. They persisted for three more minutes, sensing that they had already lost Ororo, but would not give up.

Unexpectedly a bleep sounded on the EKG machine. Either not believing or not hearing the insistent bleeping over their own, they carried on. It was only when Remy tore Jean away from the bed and pushed Hank back making him stumble into the cart, did they desist. Ororo's eyes were closed and she was breathing on her own. The doctors stared dumbfounded at each other, questioning the unforeseeable return. Instead of trying to figure out a scientific explanation behind his sister's return, Remy grasped her cold hands, warming them and showered her with comforting words.

Jean fell into the chair behind her and contacted the professor.

_Professor, we have to find a way to get Ororo out of this, we almost lost her._

_I know, Jean. I felt it. I'm coming down now._

Charles rolled into the room some time later and went immediately to the head of the bed, Hank stepping out of the way for him. He looked at each of them in turn then settled his gaze on the other telepath.

"Whatever happens, don't pull me out or attempt to enter Ororo's head. Don't get involved in this." There was a pause. "Promise me."

She waited a minute to see if he was serious. He was. His voice was stern but soft and his eyes glinted with determination. He was going to get Ororo out, but he was going to do it by himself, not questions asked.

She nodded slowly, her eyes not leaving her mentor's. "I promise."

Charles turned to Hank. "Would you put Ororo on the psi-bed?"

He removed the vice from her index finger as Jean took out the IV tube and blotted the blood that followed with a tissue. Hank gather the light wind rider in his arms and carried her over to the bed were Charles would enter her mind. The bed had something similar to Cerebro's technology built into it, making it easier for telepath to amerce their psyche with another's, if the patient was strapped to the bed.

Hank laid his friend down; carefully rest her at the top of the cold, hard metal of the bed. Her head tilted to the side when she was finally still, then her body shuddered, whether it was form the material on which she lay or from she was subjected to being a prisoner of her own mind, they didn't know. But they prayed for it to be the former. He pressed a button at the side of the bed and two thick pieces of metal encircled the patient's right bicep.

Charles went over to the head of the bed and positioned his hand at Ororo's temples, almost touching them. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes then took another. His brows furrowed slightly as the woman on the bed gave a small gasp and arched her back a little.

Then the waiting began.

_The fiery force softened slightly at its master's exhaustion, but it was still something to be reckoned with. The power drove on and finally the last wall was broken through. He was in her mind._

_Charles pushed out a sensory field, all he had was intuition, the other senses gone. He could not see, hear, smell or taste. He was able to feel, though it not physical, he could sense emotions. And they shove right back as soon as his field was opened._

_Sadness. It was everywhere. The closest example of it was to his right. He travelled over to it; the feeling was so slight it was almost soothing. As he got closer his other senses return to him, the previous nothingness was replaced by vanilla. First it was only hinted in his nostrils, gradually becoming a strong welcoming smell. Then his taste buds came to life, the sweetness of the ingredient delighting him. A modulating hum snaked into his ears, as he grew louder, colours manifested, turning into a picture._

_A scene was playing out in front of him; he stepped into the kitchen of the manor. _

_Charles snickered as he saw Tabitha come into the room and jump on a counter and grab an apple, biting into brought forth a hard crunching sound. Ororo paused in what she was doing and slowly turned her head to the young girl. She lifted one winged eyebrow looking at the student with mirth in her eyes. Tabitha felt someone looking at her and shifted her eyes to her left. She smirked as she jumped of the counter and straddled a chair, her stomach rest on the back. _

_Ororo turned back to her assortment of food and picked up a stick of vanilla and smelled it, closing eyes slightly a smile played on her sensual lips. The turn in her mouth dropped as she heard the rumble of an argument draw closer to the kitchen. Anna stormed into the room, her face flushed in anger. She grabbed the handle of the fridge and ripped the door off its hinges in an attempt to open it. Giving a disgruntled humph, she dropped it on the floor and pulled a two litre bottle of water out, tearing the top open. _

_A reprimand was ready was ready on Ororo lips, but she was interrupted by her brother tumbling through the doorway of the kitchen, his brow furrowed in the same anger as his partner._

"_Remy tol' you dat it we was only talkin', Remy'd believe you." He said as he walked over to Anna, not even spying the damage._

"_Yeah, well, ah wouldn't be putting mah hand were you had yours!" she exclaimed after she forced her gulp down._

"_It's jus' somet'in' Remy does. You should know dat." He was directly in front of her now. _

"_Well, ah don't. And _that's _what you call jus' talkin'? If that's you talkin' to a _friend_, ah'd hate to see you -" _

"_Anna." Ororo finally chided the southern belle. "Tabitha is in here, control yourself. Both of you should know better." The young student was grinning from ear to air, excited at the prospect of seeing to teachers fight. Anna didn't turn to the Nubian beauty, just stared intently at Remy, who was doing the exact same thing._

_Anna said extremely slowly and in a hushed tone, "Yeah, Remy, control yourself. You should know better." As she strode past him, she poured the icy water from her bottle all over him._

_Remy gasped and jumped back as Tabitha tutted, shaking her head with a smile on her face. The Cajun spun to meet her face and said, "Somet'in' funny Boom Boom?" she stopped, slightly and Remy stepped to his sister, barking, "Damn it, Stormy! Can't you jus' leave well enough alone? You've jus' made it a whole lot harder! Merde." With that he fled out of the kitchen, going after his girlfriend._

_Ororo caught Tabitha's eyes and saw sympathy swim in them. Everyone in the institute knew that the two thought of themselves as siblings, to get angry with each other would be like a knife through their heart. Ororo quickly wheeled back to her ingredients, head held high. Her eyes her dry, but the clouds wept for her, though they were as few miles away._

_Feeling the sad pain as his own, Charles walked back to the centre, as he did so his senses dulled until he felt the same as when he arrived. Then he travelled down the long path of Ororo mind. He felt other event going on around him constantly, sometime he went to see them when the pull was strong, but for the most part he continued to where he assumed his pupil would be._

"What the hell is everyone doin' down 'ere…" Logan's irate voice trailed off when he saw the two people at one end of the med-lab. Ororo was on the psy-bed, it was active and Charles was at the head with his hands barely touching the woman's temples. Her tense form was testament to the pain that she was in; though her face would look serene to an outside viewer the people close to her could tell that she was hurting. Charles' features were not as controlled, he did not look as if he was in pain, rather in a deep, difficult concentration.

Jean had waited a minute after Charles went under before she jumped to a cupboard near the psy-bed and removed two small, dazzling white machines. The EEG machines were dropped onto a cart and dragged over to the occupied bed.

"Pass me one." Hank said as he got to the other side of the two. They attached the wire to Ororo's and Charles' forehead and the reading immediately started recording.

Now, Logan walked into the room and leaned up against a wall not to close to the other teachers, of which the majority were here. News of Dr. Grey-Summers and Professor Xavier had been circulating around the school the moment lunch started. A cigar was taken out of Logan's pocket and rolled around rough fingers before being propped in its owner's mouth. He chewed it, bored and wondering what he was doing down here. He couldn't help, he wasn't about to develop an amazing telepathic ability, so he might as well go back up stair. And Logan was about to push of the wall when one of the EEG machines suddenly when crazy.

Charles' brain wave had calmed since he first when under, but Ororo's had done the opposite and now it seemed to be much for her body to handle. The two doctors jumped into action and everyone else took a few steps back. Without speaking Hank slipped an IV needle into her arm and attached it to as bag full of solution. He then proceeded to inject a lilac liquid into the bag, it quickly mixed with the liquid in the bag to become one solution. As Hank affixed the IV to Ororo, Jean injected a 5ml fluid to a vein in the patient's neck and everyone relax as the EEG slowly levelled off.

When it looked as if the medical emergence was over Kurt looked at the doctors and asked what everyone else was thinking, "What was that?"

"Well," Hank started, "it's not questionable as to who provoked the incident, but we're not in agreement as to what actually happened. You see Ororo's-"

"Hank." Scott said before the blue furred doctor could start rambling.

"Like I said, we just don't know." At that point Charles' machine started bleeping. It gradually got faster but both Jean and Hank did not want to give him a sedative, like they did Ororo, because his concentration would waver and that would be detrimental to both incapacitated people. Since Jean had promised not to interfere, there was no way to release them without causing damage; they just had to hope for the best.

_Another swing with his muscular arm saw his opponent's sword swept from his hand and thrown across the sandy arena, smashing into a dark column. But just when he thought victory was upon him, rushing the foreboding figure, a sai came out of his opponents wrists and were flicked at him. Charles dodged the first one, the second embedded itself in his shield._

_Stumbling from the force, he was just in time to see a _**_sheng biao flying towards him, he attempted to sidestep the dart but was unsuccessful. It crashed into his chest with such force he heard a sickening crack and was pushed off his feet, doing a backwards roly-poly and finishing on his back. _**

**_He heaved in a straggled breath, fighting the urge to cry out in the pain he was in every second. He turned his head to the side and saw Ororo sitting with her arms wrapped around her hunched legs in catatonia, staring at a black wall. Though he couldn't see what she could or hear it, he felt what she did, however it was negligible compared to her. He knew what she was watching: the death of her parents. A tear crept out of his eyes, not at the fact that he would die here, since he couldn't move, but that the last time he would see his daughter, would be her in such distress._**

**_His eyes closed and he hissed as he felt vibrations, getting heavier with each step. Turning his head back to the nothingness of the ceiling he opened his eyes. Staring back at him was the twisted face of _**_Amahl Farouk. His lip curled in sadistic snarl and his eyes flashed with madness. A massive, silver miao dao with a black mark, resembling Ororo's tattoo, lifted above the Shadow King's head, it was pointing at Charles' chest._

_Professor Xavier bore into Farouk's eyes as the madman brought the blade down…_


	7. Return

**Return**

The silence was deafening. And the med-lab lay motionless. An almost imperceptible splash broke the stunned stillness and then, as if the salty bead were a signal, there was sensory eruption.

The ceiling lights exploded, leaving the room in darkness. The EEG machines went crazy before, they too, succumbed to the invisible force. A bitter taste filled the mouths of the mutants as they became laced with saliva. And Hank and Logan could smell the strong stench of Ozone. But nobody concentrated on those things, their attention was fully focused on the lightshow in front of them.

Tendrils of white light flowed into the room, pulled from all electrical devises and to the commanding entity who lay prone on the psi-bed. The pallid threads wrapped around Ororo's body, swaddling her. Gracefully, the light was absorbed into her body and a gentle cerulean glow ebbed around her.

The time that followed felt immeasurable and during it they all asked the same question. _How?_ How could this be happening? For one Ororo was in a coma and this, what ever it was, was not an ability she had. But before they could finish their internal interrogation the last of the flowing energy entered the still form on the bed. The glow began to brighten until it was too much and they had to shield their eyes. Sudden a massive flash of white, yet blue tinted, light illuminated the med-lab and when the occupants of the room opened their worried eyes, night met them.

_He had won, he had finally won. But the feeling of superiority was short lived however.__ Farouk's eyes widened with shock and terror. He had lifted his five and a half foot chrome blade above his head, his dark eyes shining into Xavier's ice chips. Then he had smirked revealing his shark-like veneers and brought the blade to bear. _

_He felt it smash into a hard immovable object and assumed it was the ground beneath Xavier's heart. But he didn't see a pain- or horror-filled countenance on the old man; the man's eyes were exactly the same as moments before. Then a new state of mind twinkled in Xavier's eyes. Farouk slowly looked down at what his miao dao had hit, what he saw almost made him drop his weapon._

_An oval shaped shield cover the area an inch above Xavier's chest. The shield was a roaring fire; smooth cerulean with hints of shady Prussian blue. _

"_Don't. Touch. Him." Three words whispered into Farouk's ear, which was an impressive feat since the pounding in his head was relentless. Then a tornado of the fire careening though his abdomen, sending him flying back. Oblivion should have awaited him; instead he found his body flattened against a wall. He laid sprawl on the barricade, heat licking at him; making him beg to scream. But a part of him blocked off the action at the last minute; Ororo would not get the satisfaction._

_She slowly walked toward him, her face carved into on of abhorrence and fury. He almost smirk at turning her into some she hated, but if moved the slightest he would grimace in pan, so he kept his face emotionless. She stopped in front of him and looked up into his eyes. Her once soft and steady orbs were now wild and burning hard, he gasped involuntary at the sight._

"_So, what are you going to do now?" he asked with more arrogance than he had._

_She didn't answer, just held out her right had and waited while a spear of 'sky flame' accumulated in there. When it was finished she brought the length up and slowly penetrated his chest with it, breaching his heart and travelling on. Farouk shouted in agony and she saw it in his eyes, but now she didn't care, she just wanted him to suffer._

_Ororo dropped the barricade that kept him up with her weapon still pushing through him. Mere second later it came out of his back._

"_What are you doing, Ororo? You can not stop me." he said sweetly and then he was no more. The 'sky flame' sword had exploded inside of him. Ororo turned to her mentor and strolled over to the man who had propped himself on him elbows. She saw the shock on his face attempt to hide the uneasiness, but Ororo saw through the mask and felt her heart plummet._

_There was a crack of manic laughter behind her. Had she not just killed him? Apparently she was wrong. The Shadow King stood firmly behind her as she turned around. An inexorable force churned throughout the inside of Ororo at the sight of his smug face and suddenly instinct took over. The previous half-void, half-dark-arena that the Shadow King created disappeared in an instant and was replaced by the centre chamber of an Ancient Greek temple. Unnaturally long white columns created a barrier on three sides, the fourth side held only two columns; they were a faded Columbia blue._

_Something made Farouk turn to the goalpost-like side, his face scrunched up in confusion when a hazy screen appeared between the two posted. But then it all became clear as a scene played on the screen, a screen that was the first snowball in the avalanche that was his life. _

_The memory was dredged up from the pit of his heart; it wasn't of the first time he killed, as some people might think, but rather of someone he had lost at such at such a younger age, it traumatized him and turned him into the man he was today. Unlike what he did to Ororo, instead of the memory being played again and again, driving her to almost insanity, it was burned into his eyes, his heart, his head. Every iota of his being had that scene etched into it, wrapped around it until the feelings were too much._

_Even for a man such as Amahl Farouk, watching your hands stretch out and straggled your little sister to death was to much for him. He felt the feeling of her and himself one thousand times worse than that day, and that was the ultimate death of him. He crumpled to his knees then got swept away in a wind made by Ororo. Dust was all that was left of his body and that eventually turned into nothingness. _

_Farouk__ was finally dead._

_Ororo swiveled round to the now standing presence of Charles and gave him a smile, to which he returned the gesture. _Then she opened her eyes and looked tiredly at the concern faces of her family. She smiled softly and once again closed her heavy eyelids; she drifted into a restful sleep. Under that film of harried skin Ororo's eyes flashed with the 'sky flame'.


End file.
